Fort Indiantown Gap has begun its spring prescribed burn season to reduce the risk of wildfires at Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County.

The burns will be conducted on approximately 4,500 acres, as conditions permit, March 18 through May 3 between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. Local residents may notice smoke originating from or in the vicinity of the installation while burns are being conducted.

A prescribed burn is a commonly used forestry management technique that reduces the amount of combustible material naturally existing in the wilderness. It is performed only when conditions such as humidity, wind and temperature are ideal for managing fires.

Prescribed burns are not conducted unless all required conditions are met.

Fort Indiantown Gap, headquarters to the DMVA and Pennsylvania National Guard, offers more than 17,000 acres and 140 training areas and facilities for year-round training.

It balances one of the region’s most ecologically diverse areas with a military mission that annually supports 19,000 Pennsylvania National Guard personnel and more than 130,000 other states’ Guard, military, law enforcement, and civilian personnel each year.

It is the only live-fire, maneuver military training facility in Pennsylvania. It is the busiest Army National Guard training center in the nation.

For more information visit the Fort Indiantown Gap website, or follow on Facebook. Individuals may also call the installation’s community information line at 717-861-2007 to hear a recorded message with dates and times of community activities and training events.

For more information on the use of prescribed fire, visit DCNR’s Prescribed Fire webpage, the PA Prescribed Fire Council website, read the Game Commission’s Better Hunting With Prescribed Burning backgrounder and visit The Nature Conservancy’s Fire Management In Pennsylvania webpage.

Learn more about wildfire risks and prevention methods, by visiting DCNR’s Wildfire webpage.

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[Posted: March 18, 2019]

3/25/2019